India, March 14 -- Moving from Pakistan's chaotic cities to its lawless countryside, This is Where the Serpent Lives powerfully evokes contemporary feudal Pakistan, following the destinies of a dozen memorable characters whose lives are linked through violence and tragedy, triumph and love. Among these are the orphaned Yazid, who rises to a place of responsibility in the Lahore household of Colonel Atar, a powerful industrialist and politician; Saqib, the son of a poor gardener, who finds himself confronting the violence of the corrupt police; and the colonel's son, who competes with his brother for the love of a woman. In matters of power, money and the heart, Daniyal Mueenuddin's characters struggle to choose between paths that are moral and just and more worldly choices that allow them to survive in the systems of caste, capital and social power. The result is a profoundly moving work....